


Pumpkin Pastures

by auroranShadows



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Story within a Story, penpals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 09:25:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10918986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auroranShadows/pseuds/auroranShadows
Summary: It’s a few days before the Violetgold Triunity on the Fourteenth of February. Jake is out doing final preparations when he finds a book depicting him and Dirk as penpals who finally meet up at Jake’s farmstead “Pumpkin Pastures”. It should be romantic and they could kiss. There will be minor mention of horses.





	Pumpkin Pastures

**Author's Note:**

> We had a valentines exchange a while back and I've been finally allowed to post it.

Your name is Jake English, and in a few days will be Valentine’s Day, or the Violetgold Triunity or whatever the goshdarn fucking dialect is around here. You’ve started planning the day at the start of the month and since this would be your first valentines with Dirk since the game you want it to be perfect. You’ve finished planning almost everything, the movie, the restaurant, the bedroom activities. 

Next on your list is the card flowers and chocolates, you’re at the bookstore for the card when what appears to be a children’s book called “Pumpkin Pastures” catches your eye. Depicted on the cover are two boys one in the hope colour scheme and the other in the heart one almost looks like you and Dirk. Smiling you take it intending to purchase it with the card, and will read it when you get home.

  


It’s mail day at Pumpkin Pastures, the farmstead owned by Grandma J English. Mail day means Jake English should be getting a letter from his long time pen pal Dirk Strider.  
Jake gets up early every day especially mail day, he lives mostly alone while his grandmother lives in the city to maintain her company. Jake prefers the quiet of the farm to the hustle and bustle of the city anyway.  
Jake wants to be finished with everything before the mail arrives so that he can spend the rest of the day writing a response. So his breakfast is light and on the go as he makes his way to the stables.  
First Jake clears out the stables, and then refills their water, making sure it's cold enough to drink. He does this for all the other animals as well, the letter he’s expecting today on his mind, as it always is. He enjoys Dirk’s letters and finding out about his week, he’d rather be able to chat with him online but they’re both too busy to get the time, so they promised to write to each other once a week instead.  
Occasionally Jake and Dirk get free time and talk through the pesterchum client, but never for more than a few hours especially with the timezone difference. The letters arrive each week, and they get to catch each other up on everything from what they had for breakfast to their work and plans, to just every little detail.  
It’s brilliant yet there’s still so much Jake wants to tell Dirk but doesn’t really know how, like how much he admires him, that he wants to take him to all the movies. All this stuff is just better said in person, but that’s a remote possibility, at least for now, and Jake can’t just leave the farm, no one else could cover for him, he wouldn’t even want to. If he can’t visit his grandma up in the city there’s no way he’d make it halfway around the world.  
Pumpkin Pastures has the most fertile farmland in the Human Kingdom, maybe in all of Home. This is said to be linked to the aspect of Hope, that Jake has been rumoured to possess. Though of this my people remember very little. We once lived with no Hope, our Page was dead, killed by our dersite predecessors, though that is a story for another time.  
The postman arrives just as Jake finishes with the horses and stables. 

Dirk Strider lives in Can Town, the metropolitan centre of the Four Kingdoms. He works as an engineering contractor, as well helps out the people of Can Town the best he can.  
Some can sense the increased presence of Heart around him, though none would approach him directly, story tells of a Prince who rose up against Derse in the times before time. I am getting sidetracked in the stories of my people I will try to remain on topic.  
Dirk’s letter should be arriving this time tomorrow and he’s been making preparations to arrive just after it does, he’s already packed and booked a highspeed train westwards. It departs tonight and should arrive sometime in the morning, giving him time to find a place to stay in the city.  
Dirk starts to wonder if going is a good idea, and what if Jake doesn’t want him there, what if he thinks the letter is stupid? So many questions swirl in his head but it's already done.  
He is now at the station, the train has arrived, he thinks to his brother, who is having better luck with his love life than he is, but smiles as he steps on. 

Hours later, but not many, back at Pumpkin Pastures Jake English has just received a letter from Dirk, and is about the read it. 

It reads as follows:  
Jake,

We've been doing this penpal schtick for as long as we can remember, and our personal lives have prevented us from using more convenient methods of communication.  
If you weren't so stubborn and hired help we'd be able to pesterchum whenever, I being awake nigh 24/7 and all.

I wanted to tell you that you've been one of the few candles guiding my way in the shadows and that without your sometimes blinding hope I don't know where I would be. You mean a whole lot to me and if it wouldn't take forever for these letters to arrive you'd probably think I was desperate and get as far away from me as possible. Though I guess you already are.

Anyway I'm sending something with this letter that should arrive a little after you finish reading, if Dave's timey thing was on point when helping me make preparations, it usually is on point. You still owe me a fucking horse ride just so we're clear.

~Dirk

Jake goes outside to see if the package that was supposed to come with the letter had arrived, even though he’s pretty sure the post would just send both at the same time. 

Dirk has just reached the last of seven gates up the driveway to the main manor house. He can see Jake standing outside, he’s about to head inside, so Dirk calls out, “JAKE!” hoping he’ll hear him. 

Jake looks up from the letter having given it another glance, he could have sworn he heard Dirk calling his name, they’ve spoken before. Surely that can’t be right though, Dirk’s all the way in Can Tow~  
Before he can finish that thought he sees a blonde boy about his age at the gate he drops the letter, and rushes to him. After minutes of awkward babbling from Dirk about how he can go if this is too much to have done this but he gets interrupted by a slow kiss from Jake. 

  


“Jake?” Dirk opens the door after he knocks.  
You scramble to hide the book under your pillow, “Howdy Dirk, what’s brought you to my doorstep like a friggin lost puppy?“  
“Beyond that you’ve been up here for hours without a word, and that we share said doorstep? Nothing really,” he snarks back at you.  
You give him an innocent smile, he sees right through it, but lets you off the hook anyway, he’ll see the adorable carapacian’s book of you two on Tuesday. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was really fun to do, it was my first time trying to write these two dorks, and I will gladly handwave any of my mistakes in their writing as being that of the carapacian author, who we can call the Authorial Scripter or something like that. That said I'm taking concrit if anyone has any.


End file.
